Minor releases and the rest of the box office

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There are many releases today trying to benefit from the pre Diwali period where big releases stay away. The releases were Guddu Ki Gun, Love Exchange, Main Aur Charles, Once Upon A Time In Bihar and Titli with a couple more which just release in interiors. None of the films even managed 10% occupancy in the morning shows,.

The best release is Main Aur Charles followed by Guddu Ki Gun followed by Titli. The collections should come in that order unless one of films released on lesser screens has better reports. It will be Saturday that will decide if any film can has a chance, the films will have to show huge growth just to survive.

Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 will also be in the mix as it could come out the top film over the weekend especially if the new releases don’t show major growth as Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 is certainty for huge growth on Saturday.

Shaandaar has had poor first week business of 36.25 crore nett, This is an eight day figure with seven day contribution being just a little more than 35 crore nett. Basically the film has done less in eight days what Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 did in seven days. Even this 36 crore nett plus number has come due to the first day holiday and contributed 11.75 crore nett.

The Monday – Thursday business for the film is just 6 crore nett and that tells the strory of the film. This is the minimum amount that you expect on the Monday for a film of this size. The film has performed poorly all over with Mumbai circuit grossing around 11 crore nett and Delhi / UP contributing around 9.5 crore nett.

The film has seen a further crash in collections on day eight and a 40 crore nett finish is looking hard for the film despite the competition being weak this week.

I ask if he’s ready for the interview and his manager cuts in, “Give him two minutes, please”. Salman smiles and quips, “You think I will feel okay in two minutes? Come on, let’s do this.” Munching on protein cookies and fruits on the side (and repeatedly insisting that I have some of it), he gets talking about movies, controversies, stress and plans for his 50th birthday this December. Excerpts from the interview:

Q. How’s your health?
A. Good, but since I am training for ‘Sultan’, it’s getting a bit painful. The prep-up involves a lot of physical exertion, so something or the other keeps hurting everyday. But I am enjoying it all. Don’t worry, I won’t let my fans down.

Q. You have teamed up with Sooraj Barjatya after a decade and half for ‘Prem Ratan Dhan Payo’. What can the audience expect from this collaboration?
A. I value my association with Sooraj; the kind of films we have done has earned us a lot of respect. Yes, we hadn’t worked for a long time and now we doing a film, which in my eyes and mind, is better than the three movies we did earlier — ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’ (1989), ‘Hum Aapke Hain Koun…!’ (1994) and ‘Hum Saath-Saath Hain’ (1999). Sooraj’s movies are not preachy; there is a nice feeling to them. When you come out of the theatre, you will be glowing because you imbibe all the niceness. It’s also one of the biggest budget films that I have done so far.

Q. To what extent are you involved in the marketing process? Why did you choose Diwali for the release?
A. Sooraj wanted a Diwali release. He planned this film three years ago, but then I got busy with other projects.

Q. Did you also take time to agree to do the film?
A. I knew he was writing the script. When he was done with it, we sat down for a narration. There was no way that I could say no to him.

Q. Will you collaborate with him again in the near future?
A. Of course, there will be more collaborations.

Q. You were juggling the shoot of PRDP and your last outing, ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ earlier this year. Court hearings related to your 2002 hit-and-run case were also going on at the same time. What was your frame of mind? How tough was it concentrate on work?
A. It was very difficult. I had to block everything out and give my 100 per cent to my work. When a fan pays to watch my film, I have to ensure that he/ she enjoys it. I can’t do a half-hearted job and say that ‘guys, I was going through sh*t’; they won’t care. I mean, they do care, but when they go to see a film, they want to enjoy. Concentrating on work when all those things were happening around was really difficult.

Q. What sort of role do you personally prefer playing on screen: family guy ‘Prem’ or ‘Dabangg’ style action hero?
A. Depends on the script. Like in ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’, my character could have easily beaten up people and done a lot of stunts, but given the story, he was the one who had to get bashed and bruised to help Munni reach home safely. You have to forget about your image if you want to do an honest job.
Interview: Between alcohol and women, I have quit alcohol, says Salman Khan

Q. The ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ story turned real with a Pakistani activist helping Indian girl Geeta return home 15 years after she strayed across the border. Do you plan to meet her?
A. I don’t think so. I work closely with an NGO which tracks missing children or those in remand homes in India and helps them reunite with their families. We recently sent 30 kids back home. When the first lot was being sent, I went to meet them. So, every time the kids were going home, they expected me to see them off. Besides, two or three of them ran away from home to meet me in Mumbai, so I had to stop going to them. As far as Geeta is concerned, she wanted to meet her biological parents and I am happy at their reunion. The family that she was staying with
in Pakistan took great care of her. I hope her real parents take as much care of her. Lot of Indian kids have disappeared and people have exploited them, trafficked them and did what not! Geeta was fortunate to have not gone through any of that.

Q. You will turn 50 on December 27. How do you plan to bring in your big day?
A. I don’t think turning 50 is a big deal and so, I have no plans for any celebrations. In fact, we have to work harder for our fans to have a memorable time at the movies. The pain this side is directly proportional to the enjoyment on the other side. And if you endure the pain on the sets, your fans will strive to take their lives a notch higher and be better human beings.

Prem Ratan Dhan Payo is nearing its release and barring any unforeseen which disturb the bonhomie similar to what RNBDJ faced after 26/11 ( allowance for any unpredictable turn of events) , the opening on the movie seems to be a foregone conclusion and expected to do a min of 125 cr in the extended weekend. The issue is the lifetime business and how will this movie be categorized with respect to its net earnings in domestic market.

A bit surprised on the release date. They are releasing on 12th which is a working day. 11th would have been a better release date. Am I getting my Diwali holidays mixed up or what? Also I don’t see the youngsters flocking for this one. Maybe it will break the Day 1 record, but I wont be surprised if it wont as the target audience here (the families) come in a little later in the day.

Ajiths Vethalam is releasing on 10th which is the day Diwali is celebrated in south. Think PRDP could have released a day or 2 earlier.

Diwali is Nov 11 and in recent years especially after Ra.One, they realized the next day after Diwali is actually the big day. Many offices have holidays and majority of folks already take the optional holiday and its as good as a holiday. So, Nov 12 is the best day to release.. Nov 11 will be impacted with the Pujas and all.

I doubt Salman movies require a target audience anymore. Its simply a celebration of sorts.

Its releasing a day after Diwali so loss of audience due to Lakshmi Pooja on Diwali day is not an issue anymore. 12th if not a full holiday will have schools and colleges closed for sure. This movie will do roaring business on Thursday / Sat & Sunday. This
movie will have advance bookings and understand overseas incl USA bookings are already open. Friday is the only ‘suspect’ day in this extended weekend…

This isn’t rocket science and shouldn’t be that hard to follow (in a logical sense) but let me try once more. The number of movies that makes 100m or 200m or 300m or whatever in Hollywood is a small fraction of the total releases. But 100% of major releases are expected to create many of these hurdles. It would be absurd to say that Avengers made 300m but hey that’s ok because how many make 300 anyway?! The same for other kinds of major releases. Similarly in Bollywood it would be rank idiocy to give a major Salman release credit for getting to 150 or even 200 based on the same logic. Finally if you’re talking about 100 and when we see tons of films that are simply accepted at some level get to this number as long as they have enough of an initial, films ranging from BMB and Barfi to 2 States and what not, it is an even lower level of intelligence (assuming any exists at a level that low) to nonetheless find 100 creditable for bigger releases with major stars (or even without them in many cases).

Since I don’t believe anyone is that challenged on grounds of intelligence one can only embrace such absurdity because one has an anxiety about a favorite star. The Salman fans never have these debates! but hey let’s give credit to Jai Ho as well. How many films get to a 100?!

Finally to say PRDP will do more than 99% of films in 4 days is true but completely irrelevant. It’s like saying that the Avengers makes what all Woody Allen films have made cumulatively for the last 40 years or something. This is an absurd analogy. Because 90-95% of releases aren’t in that category anyway. It would be crazy to expect those numbers from Scorsese or Nolan films with major stars, even a Spielberg film with major stars when it’s not that kind of blockbuster effort (Bridge of Spies) let alone anything less than this. So again these statements are utterly meaningless. And if the media and trade also peddle those kinds of things well that’s another reason for their bankruptcy. No reason to echo it.

@” I hope my question wasn’t a one which requires a “rocket science” :-)”

Thats a great retort Z. This year has been extremely poor for big and small movies. Last one Shaandaar a commercial marriage
potboiler cannot even muster 50 Cr coming on a national holiday. Its not that big commercial movies have not released this year. The end results are all same and even the bankable Akki struggled to cross the 100cr barrier this year. Except TWMR there are none to speak.

Jai Ho as stated by salman later in his interview to Nahta was priced wrong and they had cut the ticket price in half so that more and more low income group could watch it for the “greater good”
Alas it could not expand the audience base.

Wonder why you keep bringing in Hollywood films to make your point on Bollywood films. The model for Hollywood is totally different from Bollywood. Bollywood is start driven.

you put srk, salman, aamir or hr in All is Well and you’re looking at 100 crore grosser instead of 20 crore without changing a single frame in the movie.

A Hollywood movie will make what it does regardless of who’s in it. So you could have movie like Bridge of Spies made by Spielberg starring Hanks and it will tank at the boxoffice while something like The War Room will make crap load of money.

38 films on the list. of these 18 don’t star the four you’ve just mentioned. And the 100 crore grossers include films like ABCD2, Ek Villain, BMB, Barfi, 2 States, Grand Masti. Yeah huge barrier! Now let’s take out Akshay and Devgan as well. You still have almost 1/4th the list with others. Let’s take out Ranbir’s two films as well. You still have almost 20% without any of those stars. So yeah great barrier!

To do it just by calendar year when any given year can be relatively lean for all sorts of reasons is just a red herring. Again I don’t think anyone is that intellectually challenged to not get this. Hence I must assume that one is simply trying to prepare an explanation beforehand for something! Hey it’s cheaper than a vacation..!

The whole point is when srk, salman, aamir, HR are the bat, chances are they will hit century.

Good to see you come down from “150 or 200” is the new 100 to what you’re saying now.

So from the 38 movies in the link you’ve provided, let’s look at top 10 grosser.

9 of the 10 are by either srk, salman, aamir, HR
16 of the top 20 are by either srk, salman, aamir, HR

The list has movie going back to 2008, so it comes out to about 4.75 movie a year. WOW, it is an easy “barrier” to cross…

Again, try to argue without name calling and trying to make yourself superior to others. But history has shown, everytime you’re pushed against the wall, name calling starts right away and is the best you can do. Because you can’t really argue providing facts and figures and comparing apples to apples.

the whole point is that you have convenient designations like ‘top 5’ (why not top 2 or something?!) or ‘century’ (when some are hitting triple centuries!). and yeah let’s compare apples to apples. I just want to talk about those who have 300 crores. Aamir and Salman. We can talk about the rest when they enter this club. Fair?

100 crore even today is not an easy task. A point proven by the fact that you have only 1 or 2 movie this year that has made over 100 crore. By end of the year you will have at least 2 more 100 crore grosser but don’t be surprised if they both have SRK, salman, aamir of HR in it 🙂

And you fail to argue that point and you get into all this all other stuff where you start saying if 2 States did this then some other movie should do that, etc… Of course some unknown cricket can hit a century once in a blue moon, doesn’t make him a good or great batsman.

srk, salman, aamir and HR are doing it just about every turn at bat. simple as that.

You’re simply repeating yourself without answering any of the points. You’re just evading them. Here’s how that cricket analogy really works. It doesn’t take a Sachin Tendulkar to hit a century. All kinds of players hit centuries all the time. A player like Sachin is always more likely to score a century. Most other players are not individually as likely to score centuries as he does. But the way the game is played, the way its playing conditions are set up, it DOES NOT depend on someone like Sachin to score centuries. ANYONE can score centuries on most days. In other words it doesn’t require the most gifted players in the game to do this. The game is designed for even ‘average’ players (average compared to Sachin) to be able to do this.

Similarly what does a film like BMB prove? That even Farhan Akhtar in a relatively offbeat subject can get to a 100 if everything is right. Or that a film like Ek Villain can get to a 100 with a hit soundtrack and some appeal that allows a big initial but actually a relatively poor follow-through. It’s not as if films like Ek Villain or whatever are by and large trending better than those with much bigger stars. They’re not. The latter are bigger because of bigger initials. But those initials matter only if you’re trying to get to 200, not 100. Because the latter just isn’t a big enough boundary. Which is why almost 25% of those 100 crore grossers get to that number without those biggest stars but hardly any film gets to 200. Because for the latter you need a much bigger initial. Or exceptional trending which is very rare in Bollywood. Much as to get to 300 you need more than even just the biggest stars (as an aside Hrithik and SRK are very far from the highest benchmarks of Aamir and Salman and there is simply no excuse, none whatsoever to put all 4 together.. I could expand on this but that’s not my essential argument here).

It’s not difficult to get to a 100. The idea that ‘few’ films do this is meaningless. Very few films even get to 75 if one looks at these as a proportion of overall releases. One could play this game a bit more. Why stop at 100? Because it’s a nice round number? But beyond this the argument is again patently absurd because using such a logic the Avengers doesn’t have to make 600m. It could make 100 or 200 or 300 or whatever and at each point one could say ‘most Hollywood films don’t get to that number’. The essential fallacy (and I’m actually being kind here because I’d like to use a much more rude term to characterize this) is in simply equating a film like BMB with say Don2. Or one could use other comparisons. When BMB does 100 it is over performing, for this sort of film 100 is a high benchmark. For 2 States or Ek Villain the same benchmark is much easier. For BMB 100 is probably the absolute limit, for those other two more is possible (TWMR did a 150). In the same way when YJDH does 180 or whatever that means one thing, when ETT does more or less the same (within a 10% range or something) it is underperforming. There simply isn’t ONE standard irrespective of the film. The standard is defined relative to the potential of each film. With Salman’s current film 300 seems like a reasonable bar but no one thinks the same is true for Dilwale. Despite Shetty being the biggest director currently. No one thinks Dangal ought to measure up to the same bar that PK achieved. No one believes that the bar is the same for Raees or Fan as it is for Dilwale. And here the essential dishonesty of your argument exposes itself. If you think that 100 is the same bar irrespective of the kind of film under consideration, if you think that getting to a 100 is difficult irrespective of the film and that some stars magically do this easily well then the same logic should hold for higher levels too. Salman gets to a much higher level than SRK in almost of his films on most days (i.e. irrespective of what the highest benchmarks are Salman is closer to them than SRK.. Aamir of course remains the highest as a factual matter). If it’s about those ‘4’ stars as you say why can’t SRK and Hrithik clear 200 as easily as Salman? By the time SRK cleared 200 Aamir got to 270 and 340! HNY barely grazed 200 (again taking producer numbers) and fell behind CE while Salman comfortably cleared the ETT gross with Kick and is now sitting at 300 plus. He might well have two 300 plus films in a year (though I remain skeptical about the Barjatya film in this sense but that’s another debate.. again I’m talking about the potential here). So what prevents SRK doing the same with Dilwale and then Raees and Fan? Ah! Now you’ll say the latter two are different genres and cannot be expected to clear much more than 100. Certainly not 200. I agree! But this is the essential dishonesty of your position. Upto a 100 all films are somehow made equal and big stars clear this number more easily. But then when it’s about 200 suddenly one must look at genres and what not! if BMB and Don are comparable at a 100, if it’s somehow so difficult to get to a 100 so that don deserves credit for doing this well then why doesn’t the same happen with Raees or something with respect to 200? The whole point about it being difficult to get to a 100 makes no sense otherwise. This kind of logic is already implicit in it. If not one would say, one would more sanely say, that it’s very difficult for films like BMB to get to a 100 but that with the bigger stars in blockbuster productions the count should begin at a 100! I would maintain this for sure.

And finally I’d repeat one other point. You conveniently keep selecting a group where the bar is placed low enough for you to include SRK everywhere (Hrithik is included so that you can pretend to be fair about it). These stars might get to those numbers tomorrow. If they do good for them. But as things stand there is simply no excuse, none whatsoever for placing those two with Aamir or Salman, no matter how you slice and dice it. Other than by creating these red herring categories. I could say very few films even make 75 and start the count there and you’d have Akshay up there with those other 4 because most of his films get to that number! When it’s about a 100 everyone has to actually get there, when it’s about 300 you still have a 100 crore club! yeah right!

That will be it for me on this subject. I’ve been as comprehensive as possible. I mostly do this for the benefit of other readers by the way and not because I am ever in doubt about the dishonesty of those I sometimes debate with. Now I’m not calling you names. Because I actually don’t think you are that foolish to really believe what you are pretending to believe. You need recovery vacations, I don’t. Whether Abhishek gets even to 30 or not!

I think families will take this movie in a big way unless it gets boring/ preachy.

On the songs agree with you, but the title song is going to get lots of whistles in view of current trend of releasing pent up emotions in the darkness of theater. The song Premleela is getting compensated by Salman’s endearing steps and within the settings of story progression Jalte Diye will strike a cord too.

What I am loving is the massy/dance number Jab Tum Chaho and looking forward to Salmanism there. Though the song promo at the moment does not feature the setting completely and has snippets from other parts of the movie, that song has potential to trend.

Ofcourse the depth of HAKHK is missing and this is solely due to new halka fulka singers these musicians employ today except Munchal who is extremely good. Hum Aapke and even Hum Saath Saath had a lot of S. P. Balasubrahmanyam.

I can recall those glorious days when Maine Pyaar Kiya that ‘practically’ introduced superstar, Salman Khan, was released by Rajshri Productions at Metro Cinema in Mumbai. The release was limited to not only a single theatre, but also a single show (Matinee).

If I further travel back in time, in 1981, Ek Duje Ke Liye was released at Girnar theater in Rajkot. The film earned a handsome 10 crores at the box office. In all fairness, earning of 10 crores in 1981 is comparable with that of 100 crores in 2015. However the producer’s profit share (in terms of percentage) was much higher in those days; today producers are just able to manage a break-even.

In the pre-multiplex era, several films such as Ram Teri Ganga Maili, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Rangeela, Bombay, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge, Dil toh Pagal Hai, Gaddar, Lagaan, Ishq and more have managed good box office collection. So what has changed now in the multiplex era? The question is bothering me, you and many of us out here… In addition to cost of production, fundamentals and guiding principles of doing business have changed and hence producers and distributors aren’t able to manage earning in the same proportion, despite their films cross the 200 crore mark.

Low risk, limited prints and high returns were the guiding principles in earlier days. The game was played to create demand and limit the supply. Distributors’ acumen and business sense was leveraged to plan number of cinemas, terms of business and phased release. The sole agenda was to manage a healthy bottom line. If a film was released at Metro Theatre in Mumbai, the next cinema that they would target would be Sachinam in Worli. Minerva, Novelty, Maratha Mandir and Satyam, all these theatres were purposely excluded from the release plan.

What has changed today? Several films are releasing every Friday; there is a plethora of single screen and multi-screen theatres; new players have entered the marketplace. Unlike in the past, distributors come with limited business knowledge and experience. The focus has changed from ‘where’ to ‘how many’. The role that was once looked up on as strategic business function has now turned in to logistics management.

Earlier the producers was deeply involved in to distribution and marketing; today distribution and marketing functions at several corporate houses are being managed by young executives who are not aware of film making and film marketing. In fact we don’t make films anymore; we make projects. Filmmaking is about passion and creating a project is about making money.

Now let’s take a look at single screens and multiplexes business. In earlier days, single screen cinemas were yielding more returns for producers than what muti-screen theatres are able to manage today. Single screen owners never had high bargaining power but suddenly multiplex chains are making them feel miniscule. They are highly de-motivated by the fact that a large share of business goes to multiplex chains, who don’t even own the property. Also multiplexes are looked up on as preferred partners and single screen owners are subjected to unfair treatment. Mr Vandan Shah, owner of Rupam Cinema says, “We have decided to convert our theatre in to a commercial complex. Running a cinema simply does not make business sense and also hurts our self-respect. Single screen cinema owners are required to pay an advance fee to distributors; multiplex chains have been exempted. Furthermore distribution managers working in large corporate houses pressurize single screen cinema owners to continue their films beyond agreement terms. How can we run a film after maximum juice has been extracted or when a film has not been able to attract enough audience to cover basic electricity expense? Our multiplex peers are able to operate at their free will; they can discontinue or decrease shows as per their convenience; even before opening weekend ends.

This is just the beginning; in days to come we will witness more single screen owners following the path Mr Vandan Shah has taken. Does this have any impact on producers and distributors? It’s myopic to believe that single screens are a small part of the ecosystem and their elimination will not make any difference. Producers and distributors are indirectly increasing the bargaining power of multiplex chains. I now stop out here; however I would love to hear from you! Write to me and let me know whether you agree or disagree.

Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 continued it’s strong run in its third week and seems certain to hit 60 crore nett. The film grossed around 1-1.10 crore nett on its third Friday which takes its total to 53 crore nett. The film remains tops in North India out grossing all the new releases.

Shaandaar crashed further on its eight day with collections of 40-45 lakhs nett. The first day was 11.75 crore nett which is a crash of 95% plus. The first day was a holiday but it is pretty certain that over the week it will be a 90% plus fall. The total of the film in eight days is 36.50 crore nett apprx.

Pyaar Ka Punchnaama 2 should go to around 4 crore nett for the weekend while best case for Shaandaar will be half of that.

“The trade is still hoping that one of the two films – Dilwale and Bajirao Mastani – would be postponed so that the big clash on 18th December is averted.

I have seen around 50 minutes of Shah Rukh Khan and Rohit Shetty’s Dilwale. I have also seen the trailer and the song of Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Eros International’s Bajirao Mastani. Both the films hold promise of clicking at the box-office in a very big way. There is every reason to believe that Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol’s romance in Dilwale will appeal to the audience this time also as it has done so often in the past. Varun Dhawan brings in the youth factor in Rohit Shetty’s film and one doesn’t need to emphasise how popular he is among the youth today. Shah Rukh and Rohit have delivered a blockbuster in Chennai Express and so, what prevents one from assuming that Dilwale will surpass the business of Chennai Express?

Likewise, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, known for his sensitively-handled love stories and his ostentatious sets, seems to have surpassed himself in Bajirao Mastani if the trailer and visuals of the first song are any indication. He gave Ranveer Singh his first 100-crore film in Ram-Leela. There’s again every reason to assume that the filmmaker will outdo himself with Bajirao Mastani, starring the very Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone with Priyanka Chopra in a full-fledged role this time as against a special appearance in a song-dance in Ram-Leela……”

“…..Frankly, every single distributor of Dilwale and Bajirao Mastani is unhappy that both the films would be clashing at the ticket windows. Every multiplex chain, every single-screen cinema in the country is hoping for a ‘miracle’ to happen and one of the two films to be shifted ahead. Ideally, a big multiplex may want to give Dilwale 35 or 40 shows a day in the first week. The same big multiplex may want to offer Bajirao Mastani around 20 or more shows per day in the week of release. How many multiplexes in India will be able to do that? In other words, how many multiplexes have the capacity for 60 or more shows per day? Hardly any! That itself should be reason enough for Bajirao Mastani to move away from 18th December and opt for either December 25 or January 22, 2016 (Republic Day week).

Although the trade is waiting with bated breath for the ‘miracle’ to happen, it is hardly going to be a miracle if it does indeed happen. For, it’s pure, simple and unadulterated business logic and nothing more than that. But yes, if it does happen, the troubled trade will definitely consider Lulla and Bhansali as the Gods who came to their rescue!”

Why slb should move away while they declared their date first and are already on promotion in full swing? srk/robit shetty should be ashamed showing his ego and wishing everyone else to make place for him whenever he wants. They did same during outim and ce clash.
Dilwale trailer is not even out yet and i think they can move ahead by 3 weeks. Another thing is one movie can come early in december. There arent any big movie after tamasha and next 6 weeks can easily accomodate 2 big movies. One movie can come in first or second week of december. Actually i am disappointed there are no interesting movies until 18th dec. because neither prdp nor tamasha trailer worked for me.
My biggest disappointment is wazir shifting to 11th jan for no reason, earlier it was set for first week december release, that was perfect apetite for movie lovers in last two big movie months of the year.

what a stupid article…I am all for the clash, even though it is a David and Goliath type of set up. Enough of these superstars getting a free run with solo releases, time for Ranbir, Ranveer and the rest to step up to the plate

“Yusuf shaikh says:
October 31, 2015 at 12:12 pm
Couldn’t agree with you more Komal. Truly the times have changed, I was an exhibitor during the Lagaan and Gadar days and am an exhibitor now too. There is no loyalty of the audiences today after the first show today, forget the first day! Social media , word of mouth and reviewers influence them into delaying their decision of watching 2 films at a time and by then it’s too late. Piracy, alternate content, ticket rates, weekdays all come in the way then.

Watching one of these films should be like a spontaneous urge and not a wait and watch feeling . The minute it becomes “let’s watch dilwale first” that means more chance of BM getting missed. Don’t forget today time is money and no one has time for 2 films in one weekend. Forget ppl like us,we are talking about millions others.
Hats of to close industry unbiased ppl like Komal we are able to discus this with a honest intent and no malaise towards anyone..
22nd Jan is a fabulous weekend for a historical epic and will do bigger justice to BM…

For Dilwale I would say if SRK and RS need time to complete their post, Please take your time.. Premature babies can be stressful !! You Don’t give birth to a baby every year of your life .. We want to love your baby!!

For me , I would love to enjoy the glory of that Friday when both these films released individually and that would give me an excitement of a sleepless Thursday night ,in anticipation of one of the biggest Friday’s in Bollywood .. Woh Subah aane do.. Please !”

“There is intolerance, there is extreme intolerance… there is I think… there is growing intolerance,” Shah Rukh told India Today TV.

“It is stupid… It is stupid to be intolerant and this is our biggest issue not just an issue…Religious intolerance and not being secular in this country is the worst kind of crime that you can do as a patriot,” he said,

Asked whether he will give up his Padma Shri award, Shah Rukh responded, “I mean just for a symbolic gesture, yes, if I have to.”

At the same time, he said, “respect those who returned awards, but I don’t have to.”

hmmm….lets see ….! watched the Barkha Dutt interview and found him superficial, painfully accented, at times gibberish / annoying. Probably this may have been his defense mechanism noticing Barkha’s inclinations to corner him on controversial / tough questions to get headlines…… wrt to ‘charged’ current political scenario…..

His sidestepping controversy may also have to do with his upcoming major release clash on Dilwale / Bajirao Mastani where his stardom/ position is at stake…..and needs major audience patronage. It seemed by ducking he was walking a thin line as release is too close for him to be able to undo any damage which can put off any section / potential audiences. Barkha kept cornering him on Shiv Sena and he kept dodging the question and rightly so since I have never seen anyone directly taking panga with Shiv Sena esp in the current mode where they have taken to blackening face with ink….

However his interview with Rajdeep was a delight and fun… much more what srk is like in real life ….’a delhi ka launda’ with a nutty sense of humor !

Luckily for him Arun Shourie’s criticism of Modi govt on the same day and similar topic of intolerance took some heat off his shoulder and focus shifted from him……. though it seemed he had already prepared to shift the internet / media chatter by posting that pic with salman on twitter !

Second, it was clear that he reserved most of his anger for only a certain section of the BJP. Nothing else explains his vociferous agreement with every phony canard that Thapar fished out of his rabbit-hat. If one looks at Shourie’s record, he was the one who for much of his life wrote longforms and books precisely rebutting these sorts of canards.

Third, as a consequence of the second, Arun Shourie has suddenly become the darling of the very folks whose bluff he called, whose shenanigans he exposed, whose insults he suffered—but didn’t cower—relentlessly, mercilessly almost throughout his life.
It was certainly unfortunate to exclude Arun Shourie from the Government. Yet, it is equally true that he could’ve expressed his disappointment in a far more measured fashion than taking potshots at Modi and the BJP—potshots of the same colour that he had fought against throughout his life.
For me, Arun Shourie will always remain one among the Four Rishis of contemporary Bharata who have deeply, positively shaped my studies, thoughts, and outlook.http://swarajyamag.com/politics/is-this-the-winter-of-his-discontent/

Actor Shahid Kapoor is very disappointed by the failure of ‘Shaandaar’. Soon after this ambitious project bombed, the blame game started. Sources close to Shahid said that he is upset because he agreed to do this movie due to his faith in the makers.

Apparently, now Shahid is taking decisions very carefully. Recently, we told you that Shahid is sending his scripts to professionals to understand the potential of the movie. He is scared that he would go on the Ranbit Kapoor way if he signs up for sloppy scripts.

But, maybe this time Shahid went too far. Shahid Kapoor who had signed the movie ‘AK vs SK’ has opted out of the movie. Reportedly, he called his close friend Madhu and said that it would not be a nice decision for him to take up a risky project like it. Shahid even shoot for a one day for the movie but later decided to leave the project

Madhu visited Shahid’s home and tried to convince him to not quit the movie, but he was stubborn. He said he would take a brief holiday with his wife Mira and stay away from movies for a while.

The theme is definitely contemporary and will cater to multiplex audience which experience the daily mundane life, the everyday 9-5 jail cell where everybody is waiting for the weekend to party so they can get outside of their head…..

Its the repetition of Ranbir in a similar set up which may not excite the common crowd. Imtiaz Ali is highly over rated at the moment and mostly fails to join the set pieces to make it an overall enriching experience.

I am happy Kapil Paaji has had guts to say it and after a jab at Sachin earlier, this is another frontal attack….. its increasingly becoming evident Indian cricket team is getting dogged by camps with Shastri heading the mafia of BCCI-

“Baap Baap hota hain aur beta beta hota hain,” was Kapil’s witty reply when asked who is a better captain between Dhoni and his successor in Tests.

• “There is a still long way to go before Kohli the captain matches the achievements of Dhoni,” Kapil said.

One of the biggest superstars of all times, Shah Rukh Khan, who turned 50 a day ago, has received one of the highest civilian awards Padma Shri. When he was quizzed recently about returning the honour due to the increasing intolerance in India, Shah Rukh Khan diplomatically maintained a stand and spoke about the growing religious intolerance and the current situation in our country. And it has rubbed self-proclaimed godman and Hindu political activist Sadvi Prachi the wrong way.

Sadvi Prachi recently claimed that people like Shah Rukh Khan should be sent back to Pakistan and even accused the superstar of being a Paksitani agent. Shah Rukh Khan’s recent statements on religious intolerance that persists in our country has irked Sadvi Prachi who has even made a statement asking Shah Rukh Khan to be charged of sedition.

This is not the first time where Sadvi Prachi has voiced her opposition towards the industry. Prior to this, she had even asked for a ban on Aamir, Salman and Shah Rukh Khan films and had asked right wing political parties to tear off the posters of their films.

Aren’t these folks really just proving SRK’s point, that there is growing intolerance??? The dude is just voicing his opinion based on what he is seeing these days, and other people can voice their own, rather than attempting ridiculous personal attacks.

So, you think SRK should have said there is no religious intolerance in the country, when asked? Also, all big star gives interviews during their free time or during the media interviews before releases. No one gives interviews when busy shooting their movies, be it Aamir, Hrithik or SRK.

SRK is feeding into the current narrative of growing intolerance in India. Religious intolerance has not increased in the country since this government came into power, similar incidents during UPA reign did not get highlighted nearly as much. Mainstream media is playing with fire, I believe there is a silent majority of Hindus that stand against the Sadhvi Prachi type people, but they are increasingly getting annoyed with fingerpointing at the very small minority of radical hindus while radical elements in other religions are not getting highlighted with the same vigour. (Don’t get me wrong, I want the same standards to apply to all religions).

Coming to SRK, he definitely gets more coverage in media than other stars. Call it coincidence or whatever he ends up aligning with events around the time he has a movie release whether it is jumping up and down with the tricolor in a cricket match around the time Chak De! released, to getting detained in US while filming MNIK ( and using the opportunity to state my name is khan and…) and now this. Of course I could accuse Aamir of doing the same thing.

“Kamal Hasaan: intolerance has been there since 1947. That’s why Pak went it’s way”

This has been exactly my point which I stated in my earlier comment on the other thread. Its all political opportunism which unfortunately Shourie had fanned more now out of sheer frustration and increased vitriolic tones in Bihar elections.

well said Dhoni..
Aside-
Minhaz Merchant ‏@minhazmerchant · 23h23 hours ago
Since he’s a patriot, I’m sure @iamsrk has at some stage issued a statement condemning Pak terrorism against India. Would be nice to see it

Agree to your comment and such condemnation should come out naturally esp if one is willing to pander to such political debates. Best would be keep clear as Big B.

In all fairness srk too was telling Barkha the same thing what kamal haasan stated that intolerance was always there and its become much more vocal and visible due to so many news outlets and social media / twitter warfare etc…..

Rupa Subramanya ‏@rupasubramanya ·
Few days after Musharraf admitted to training terror grps in Kashmir,Aiyar @SudheenKulkarni share stage with him.WOW
Can’t find equivalent ex in any other country where days after someone admits they waged war against your country,you hang out with them.
The reason I can’t think of an example is cos that kinda shit doesn’t happen elsewhere!
You refuse to be in same room as Modi but u have no prob being buddy buddy with Musharraf who’s admitted to waging war against your country.

seriously WTF is wrong with Aiyer and Kulkarni, one did not need an admission from Musharraf to confirm Pakistan’s culpability. I hold Musharraf, who proudly considers himself the architect of the kargil war,personally responsible for the barbaric torture and death of Saurabh Kalia and others ( eyes gouged out, private parts chopped off etc while they were alive)

When Basu Bhattacharya confided in Sangeeth Sivan’s father that his son, Aditya, wanted to direct a film, cinematographer-director Sivan immediately offered to loan him his equipment, which included lights and a Mitchell camera, and his sons, Santosh and Sangeeth. Sangeeth was a capable production guy with contacts at Prasad Lab in Chennai which got him rolls of high speed Agfa film for free which Santosh, a talented cinematographer, put to good use, reeling off one brilliant fourminutes, 400-feet shots after another. He even did the dissolves and superimpositions in camera, having experimented on this earlier with his brother on the documentaries they had worked on.

“Babla (Aditya) and Nusrat (Aamir Khan’s sister) would write the script all day and we would shoot through the night. The last shot would be taken as day was breaking and the last Rs 200 would be spent on chai, samosas and jalebis,” recalls Sangeeth, adding that one day, Pankaj Kapur wanted a packet of cigarettes. “The money was over so I scrounged around and managed to put together the Rs 80 needed. The next day, he returned the money to me, saying I could pay back what I owned to everyone in tens and twenties having watched me beg and borrow.”

He recalls shooting at Bandra with Pankaj waiting on a bike under a lamp post. He had to strike a match which cast a glow on his face. “He gave us take after perfect take without the match blowing out despite a strong wind from the sea. It was only later that he revealed that he’d strike threefour matches together knowing he wouldn’t be caught out in a long shot,” says Sangeeth.

Aamir was shooting for Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak simultaneously and would turn up whenever he had an evening free and the rest of the team who had bunked out at Basu’s bungalow for two months, would spring into action. Even though they could only shoot when co-producer Asif Noor who had a shop in Bandra sold a pant or a shirt, the shoot went off smoothly. None of the crew got paid and even Aamir used his remuneration for the promotions. Raakh was ready before QSQT but as they had promised, they waited for Aamir’s uncle, Nasir Hussain’s film to release first. It was a blockbuster and they were rewarded with a steady stream of distributors. But many of them got scared off when they discovered that it was a dark, three-hour plus film with no masala. The ones who stayed insisted on its length being trimmed down. “Babla who was out of the country, warned that not a single frame should be cut,” reveals Sangeeth. “But Asif managed to convince him.”

Then, Sangeeth and the film’s editor, A Sreekar Prasad, sat down to re-edit the married print which had already been mixed, ensuring there was no sound jerks. Aamir, who knew the script well was consulted on the cuts. “On one occasion he told us to edit a scene that had him crying without glycerine. But on second thought, he felt the high-performance shot should be retained. So we had to put back what had been cut twice over,” he laughs.

Sreekar won the National Award for editing, Pankaj for best supporting actor and Aamir got a special jury mention.

Since SRK is a celebrity (more than the authors or Filmmakers), you bring yourself to limelight if the comment is political. The question is, should a star voice his or her opinion without getting dragged in quagmire? Does that opinion carry more weight than an average Nathulal’s opinion?

You gotta be kidding. It doesn’t matter if the comment is smart or not.. some politicians target some specific stars irrespective of the comment. Tell me what was not balanced answer in SRK’s interview?

Because you open yourself to attack from both sides; It is unfortunate we don’t have culture where George Clooney and Client Eastwood can be what they are and comment based on their political ideologies.

Any such Muslim, even Shahrukh who is facing difficulty and discrimination in India because of Islam are invited to stay in Pakistan – End

Isn’t the word ‘intolerance’ itself a red herring within the contemporary Indian context? An abstraction that becomes a kind of ‘negotiation’ for all sides and cancels out the specificity of the problem? Akin to ripping episodes out of the history and obfuscating everything this way? Put differently ‘violence’ of any sort ought to be condemned but there is a certain kind which is part of a specific register. All crimes are not ‘made’ in the same place. Differently still ‘crimes’ should not be looked upon only as a result (people attacked, killed, raped, whatever) but also in terms of their motivations. In the same sense horrible and inexcusable crimes can occur without these being the ‘goal’ of an existing power structure while there are others that come about because these are direct consequences of the same. I am deliberately staying away from proper nouns here as it just pushes people into their respective corners (not that I am ever guilty of shying away from this in specific contexts). My only point here is that there is an essential dishonesty in such obfuscation and false (if not cynical) universalization of the problem. People are dispossessed or killed or their lives are destroyed in other ways all over the globe as we speak. To say that wherever the ‘irreparable’ happens to or with any human being (though I would include animals here as well..) it is all the same would be quite absurd. The contexts matter. And yet this is the kind of proposition that is being advanced at the present moment in India. That it’s all the same. You rip out episodes from all over the place, you divorce them from all context, you flatten out the landscape in this sense, reduce everything to mere points on an imaginary map of atrocities, you pat yourself on the back for being fair when in fact you have just legitimized other atrocities this way (if a thing is not called by its proper name this is an elementary act of violence that breeds others), you refuse the responsibility of taking sides (this is the truest universalism.. in every given situation justice does not lie equally on all sides.. the greater demand is always on one side or the other..), you get back to business as usual. All of this shouldn’t be news but it’s worth pointing out that this ‘intolerance’ label is simply too benign to address a great deal of what’s wrong in the present. whether advocated sincerely or cynically it is an empty, meaningless term. precisely because it is not anchored in any specific definition. It’s haziness is meant to serve every side equally. And not surprisingly every side has in fact latched on to it. We can all be against an ‘evil’ when the term is kept abstract enough. It is only when the ‘evil’ is defined in more specific ways that clearer ethical responsibilities emerge. On a related note ‘silence’ is deeply problematic (those who can speak, should speak but do not..) but so is an irresponsible speech that simply serves to muddy up everything. Often these things are mutually complicit, at least in terms of their results, which is why one ought to be very careful either way.

I don’t want to restate all of it as it would be a much longer comment and I’m being kind today! I’ll just repeat something that I’ve said earlier and which is in many ways much more about all of us (‘the people’ if you will) than it is even about political figures and politics and so on. It seems to me that the largest casualty in all these debates (on the blog here or wherever) is some essential notion of right and wrong. Because we refuse to recognize wrongs when it occurs on ‘our’ side of the debate. And the way we walk away from this responsibility is by making the other side ‘more wrong’. Even if this is true (let’s accept this for a moment) so what? If others are worse than us that doesn’t mean we are angels. But we can continue to evade our own responsibility by always shifting the topic. hence it is always about what some journalist says or someone on twitter says or what some celebrity says or does or whatever. But it’s very convenient to always go after only the ‘opposition’. When does the subject ever turn to our own side? The answer is: never! We never look into the mirror. Or we say we do it privately or at the most ‘among friends’. As if right and wrong depend on whether one is among friends or not! And so in some ways it’s not even about just blaming parties and so forth. There’s a place for this of course but what right do we have to question them if we use the very same tactics on blogs like this one? Forget politics and such important issues. We do the same even in movie discussions about our favorite stars! ‘truth’ is then not about any standard one way or the other, it is simply about what a politician or movie star says or does. Even the most unpardonable things become forgivable if we are fans of either, otherwise it’s the opposite. From this flows every other argument. All the constant comparison, the other side is worse, he said this, she said that, etc etc. equally there is a kind of obscurantism where every side is equally guilty, it’s all the same, this is another way of avoiding responsibility. Again don’t want to expand on all of this here but using some of these standards everything in the world is forgivable. Because someone somewhere is always worse and if you can’t find someone in the present you can even go back centuries! Since it’s about mythology anyway, no one really cares to learn more about these things, truly ‘learn’, all one does is quote one media opinion or another, one twitter opinion or another, and one doesn’t even quote, one only picks those one already agrees with. The other side does exactly the same and it goes on this way. All of this doesn’t mean one can’t figure out what’s right or wrong except if one wishes to remain confused. To paraphrase a line from Trishul some things in life ought to be beyond such petty considerations or even beyond ideological commitments. If a defenseless man is being killed on the street, if a woman is being raped, if someone is being beaten up, etc.. I don’t really care about ‘history’ or what ‘opinions’ might be on the subject. I shouldn’t pretend to be confused about this stuff nor should I be pointing out that in the next street there are more killings going on or whatever. I should be able to very simply identify it as an absolute wrong. And the same for any such thing anywhere else. If one loses even this compass, if one starts ‘negotiating’ victims, what’s left? It’s easy to keep blaming politicians and journalists and whoever. How much more ethical are we?

Very well said. This can only be resolved if people from all sides actually agree to criticize their own side honestly and to the fullest extent before pointing the finger to the opposition. Only then will the hypocrisy from all sides cease. Otherwise it just becomes an unending game of chicken that keeps re-enforcing half-truths, excuses and shenanigans, and totally hardens stances to the point of inflexibility.

As long as democracy requires only a 51% majority (and actually much less in the first-past-the-post system of India), neither side will relent. The strategy used is only to convince the 51st person to join their ranks, and thus beat the rival set of half-truths/lies into submission. This keeps building up every generation, until an unshakable edifice of falsifications has been built up. There really is no ethical or honest side out there, or at least none that can enforce any power in the mainstream. And this logjam is emblematic of pretty much every democracy in the world.

@ I can’t imagine the future if such intolerance continues to exist and grow.”

No can do sir! Nope, never!

This kind of Utopian world, highly desirable or near perfect qualities in a society does not exist. The ‘world’ has gotten too complexed and has moved too far down the lane to have any simplistic approach and solutions to any human issues.

Not in this age, not in mine or your lifetime. Freedom of speech with advent of social media is a killer combo and nullifies all the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in no time. We are essentially living in an agenda driven society with bare minimum ethics. ( i am no proponent of socialism / communism but this is a major pitfall of our Capitalistic approach in life).

I mean these things are so problematic in a highly settled (suljha) country like U.S / Western world, how can we even imagine this kind of scenario in an Indian subcontinent. Just look at the Trumps & Carsons of the developed world. These guy can say the most atrocious things and still get away because there is a audience for it even in a country like USA where most know these guys will not be able to fulfill a single promise / platform they stand and gain popularity but they still remain relevant…..and that’s because there are so many vested interests behind each idea.

To avoid making a long comment, what a society can do is draw up a robust Constitution and make a good set of laws but more important than that is too have sufficient ENFORCERS of these laws…..and its only then and then we can think of resolving these issues.

If the grapevine in Chennai is to be believed we shall see India’s two greatest living icons of cinema together in the same film.

We’re talking about none other than Rajinikanth, the Emperor of Tamil cinema, and Amitabh Bachchan, the Shahenshah of desi entertainment. The two are all set to come together for the sequel to director Shankar’s 2010 blockbuster Robot which became a historic hit in the South.

Most trade specialists felt Robot underperformed in the North because it lacked a pan-India star presence. That lacuna would now be filled. In the sequel to Robot, Big B, a big supporter of the Rajiinikanth school of acting, is being roped in.

Sources say Shankar has conceived “a very khulasa (frank) role for Bachchan Saab in Robot 2.”

The last time that the two mega-stars came together was in 1985 for Geraftaar.

Says a source close to this historic development, “Bachchan Saab and Rajini Sir have immense mutual respect. They have been on the look-out to work together for the longest time.”

Besides Geraftaar the two super-icons created cinematic history in T Rama Rao’s Andha Kanoon where Amitabh Bachchan had an extended guest appearance.

yes I did mean a proper role. The problem though is Bachchan doesn’t speak Tamil. In a bilingual you could dub him in the Tamil version and use his voice for the Hindi but even for a Tamil audience dubbing his voice would be odd. It’s just too well-known. It might well be a special appearance, even if the news is true. But again as I said it would be great news only if it’s a proper role.

Looks like Kamal Haasan and controversies go hand in hand. Popular Tamil star Kamal Haasan recently stirred the hornet nest threw quoting about the bull-taming sport of ‘Jallikattu’, which has now been banned, saying it is not intended at harming the animal involved. “It is about taming the bull and not creating physical harm by breaking its horns or other parts,” the actor said.

During the inauguration a photo exhibition the actor said that complaints that the bulls were ill-treated may be true with similar events in Spain or Italy but was not the case in the country. He said that this was a sport held for youth during peaceful times so that they don’t panic if there was a real life conflict. It was about bravery and tested an individual’s physical endurance, he said on the popular event which is held during the Tamil harvest festival of Pongal but was discontinued this year on the Supreme Court’s order. “My request would be that it be allowed,” said Hassan. ‘Jallikattu’ had been banned by the Supreme Court last year on grounds that it lead to cruelty to bulls. The supreme court banned the sport in May 2014 over constant persuasion by animal activists and a case filed by Animal Welfare Board Of India.

National award was for the film, not best director, says Savita Hiremath. Dibakar says he has returned his ‘bit’ of the award, and apologised to the film’s producer.

However, it now transpires that the national award won by Khosla Ka Ghosla was not Dibakar’s to give away. The film won the ‘Best Feature Film in Hindi award’, and as such the honour went to the film’s producer and not Dibakar.

Dibakar retorted, “I am not on any social media. I have no political clout. I protested with the only weapon I have since the national award is linked to my reputation as a filmmaker. If I had tweeted or posted on Facebook, it would have reached some places. But by coming together with 11 other filmmakers returning their national awards, I drew the attention of the entire country. My conscience is clear.”

ok then naya sona here..lol. On srk the film industry always maintained how they were above caste/religion especially bigb spoke a lot on the unity and lack of differences. I wonder what extreme intolerance srk had to go thru’ consistently all his life and the industry. sardesai should have asked him more probing questions instead of just a single blanket statement no.

“I wonder what extreme intolerance srk had to go thru’ consistently all his life and the industry. ”

Ridiculous, there isn’t difference between you and those BJP jokers. Just reacting to a media headline and then passing on the comment. Honestly.. what you saying is not very different than those saying.. how is he a big star if he faced intolerance in India and if he don’t like, he can go to Pakistan!

no. it is a genuine question. I wonder what he had to go thru’. poor thing. after all the celebs live in ivory towers and are not in touch with what is happening other than a new movie release. I don’t think the patel guy who got beaten up in alabama has been running around screaming racism and intolerance in usa.

It can be genuine question but you reacted just reading the media headline.. same as those politicians, that’s my point. If you don’t find wrong in questioning.. politicians also never find wrong in questioning what they did.

Incase, you wanted to know now.. SRK wasn’t talking about himself individually as he said, he became star too soon in life and that always never gave him clear outlook but as a general assumption he agreed to the interviewer that there is lot of increase in religious intolerance and this can lead to dark ages and which is not good.

Salman khan at least puts foot in his mouth when drunk unlike the ‘bad’shah.

excerpts from salman interview:

At one point, when one scribe asked whether he thinks there’s intolerance in the country, Salman threw the question back at her.
“You tell me, you are the from the press. You tell me. Do you think intolerance in increasing?” Salman asked the reporter.
The reporter said, “I don’t think so. The atmosphere is created like that.”
Salman replied, “When you know it’s all being created, then why are you recreating it? Why are we discussing it? You are doing it. They created there. You are creating it here.”
Better words were never said, Salman.

Re.-Just reacting to a media headline and then passing on the comment. Honestly.
The Irony just committed suicide !

Re.-Folks like you are more dangerous than those politicians!
Folks like you also are more lethal than Adarsh Liberals / Sickulars !!

Let’s not engage in personal attacks Master .
I will repeat myself- SRK was fine here, it was Burqa and Rajdeep trying to ask the same question again and again and bringing up his “Indian Muslim ” Identity.
SRK being SRK could not resist the temptation , and stupidly said that his dad was born in Pakistan ?? Tab thaa kya Pakistan ??

“Let’s not engage in personal attacks Master .
I will repeat myself- SRK was fine here, it was Burqa and Rajdeep trying to ask the same question again and again and bringing up his “Indian Muslim ” Identity.
SRK being SRK could not resist the temptation , and stupidly said that his dad was born in Pakistan ?? Tab thaa kya Pakistan ??””

Now this cherry picking is too much. I don’t think not a single politician is talking about that statement at all. Srk didn’t make a statement ” My dad is from Pakistan” He was talking in scheme of things talking about harmony in single house.. and you taking that as a single statement and out of context. No one is targeting SRK for that statement at all. They are targeting for the intolerance comment.

Also, I want to add there is absolutely no wrong in SRK trying to prove that his father originally from Peshawar personally preferred and moved to India after partition which is good thing in scheme of things especially when needed to prove your patriotism.

Above all, many Mumbaikars I spoke to felt that they and others around them no longer seemed to care about what happened to their fellow citizens – so busy were they struggling to keep their heads above water.

Being India’s capital city and partly thanks to the Commonwealth Games, Delhi, as a city, has improved in many ways in the recent past. Citizens of Delhi and even Gurgaon were trying to make changes (car-free day, Raahgiri etc).

But in Mumbai, hope has slowly been sucked out of the bloodstreams of its citizens and a cynicism has replaced it.

If a 2005 kind of crisis were to repeat itself, the city might no longer respond the way it did.

One may no longer feel wistful when leaving Mumbai but one can’t help but feel sad.

“could it be that Salman is doing whatever it takes to make PDRP a success?”

Are you serious? Salman needs help in making his movies a success? Didn’t he just have a 300+ blockbuster this year already?

I am actually serious, let me rephrase what i wrote though…its not about 100, 200 or 300…with Barjatya at the helm and the pre release hype Salman probably thinks he can beat PK and have the highest grossing movie against his name. Since 2008, its been Aamir who has ruled the roost, except for a brief period when SRK was at the top with CE if I am not mistaken.

Quentin Tarantino finally responded to the growing calls for boycotts of his films, which were ignited when The Hateful Eight director spoke at an anti-police brutality rally in New York City on Oct. 24. “I’m not being intimidated,” Tarantino told the Los Angeles Times. “Frankly, it feels lousy to have a bunch of police mouthpieces call me a cop hater. I’m not a cop hater. That is a misrepresentation. That is slanderous. That is not how I feel. But you know, that’s their choice to do that to me. What can I do? I’m not taking back what I said. What I said was the truth.”

Tarantino came under fire when he spoke at a rally protesting “police terror” and the deaths of individuals like Tamir Rice and Eric Garner at the hands of on-duty officers. “When I see murders, I do not stand by,” he told a crowd in New York. “I have to call a murder a murder and I have to call the murderers the murderers.”

In addition to my two longer comments above I’d make this larger point. There is a rather cynical oscillation by those who represent the govt interests and/or ideology when faced with these questions. Here I am not getting into the ‘facts’, I am however commenting on a certain clever hypocrisy that is very different from the usual hypocrisies of politics because it represents certain structural issues. So what do folks say when they’re attacked as intolerant or whatever? They say the usual things in defense, attack the opposition, so on and so forth. All of this is predictable for anyone who’s studied the history of political parties, not just in India. But what also happens here is that all these spokesmen also assert the plurality and diversity of India and the extent to which the nation is above these things and about how such incidents and utterances cannot damage its basic fabric. In short the Nehruvian state is presented as the guarantor! The very Nehruvian fabric that is otherwise attacked all day long is let in through the back door here! But it’s not just about Nehru or a pluralistic state. It’s about the fact that this is the very state that one has been in opposition to all along, that one is constantly trying to deconstruct. The very folks who do not agree with the Nehruvian framework start praising its virtues. The perverse message almost is: don’t worry about what we do because the state is strong enough to withstand us! It’s as if the Republican party or various cross-sections of it were questioned on their comments on Hispanic immigrants and so on and if they then defended themselves by saying the US was a country of immigrants and therefore strong enough to withstand such folks!

And I’ll get into the Nehruvian angle even at another level. Those who are against his conception of the State are not really saying — here’s this other model of pluralism we have that isn’t like the Nehruvian one but is nonetheless as strong. They’re basically for majority rule but they present this as a fairer pluralism. Again a US example would be useful. The House of Representatives allots seats proportionately to states using population metrics and so on. But because it was also understood that bigger states would completely dominate everything in the Senate the biggest and smallest states have the very same number of votes. Whether you’re from Hawaii or New York it doesn’t matter, you still have the same number of votes. This was considered to be a way of keeping the smaller states relevant. Now there is a more complicated history behind this which I won’t get into but the point is that precisely pluralistic democracies often have these little arrangements. In other systems no one bothers! It is only in a democracy that many people think that different minorities should be protected in different ways. one can of course debate all of this. But the point again is that one cannot use these disagreements to take apart the very system. Or one should at least admit this. So one can keep arguing against Nehru by taking for granted the achievements of the Nehruvian state, this if one is sincere, or one can cynically argue at both ends of this opposition. So Nehruvian democracy is terrible because it pampers minorities but then when those minorities are threatened in other ways you say ‘hey the pluralistic state can resist all such communal pressures’!

Again my point here is isn’t to get into one side or the other of the debate but highlight this rather crucial point. Because in many debates not just about the present problems there are many even on this blog who adopt such positions. You cannot have it both ways. If you argue against a certain kind of State you don’t get 98% of it by tweaking certain structural things. Or those ‘tweaks’ are what’s crucial. If you undo those you just have a very different and more majoritarian state. Again in the US you can change how the Senate votes are apportioned but you’d then have a drastically different Senate and hence a drastically different democracy. Still people who believe in the essential contours of a State can nonetheless hold on to this idealization. If I am for instance invested in Nehruvian ideas I might feel that certain things can be changed and the rest preserved. But if your argument is against this framework itself everything changes. Which is fine to have as a position as long as one doesn’t keep assuming that the ‘stronger’ aspects of the Nehruvian system will nonetheless be around much less use the same cynically as a ‘guarantor’ in political debates.

And to end with a specific example if you want an Indian nation-state not premised on reservation politics at all that’s one kind of idea but that State would be unimaginable from our present perspectives. If one believes in reservation one can argue over the percentages. But if one doesn’t believe in it at all it’s a totally different India which we cannot even begin to conceive of. Because we have never lived in a country like that.

So again I’m not taking sides here in the sense of preferring one outcome or the other (though everyone obviously knows my views). I’m just illustrating this oscillation.

What Is The Expected Opening Day Numbers Of Dilwale And Bajirao Mastaani And Does Bajirao Mastaani Have A Chance?
Wednesday 04 November 2015 11.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network

Q. What is the expected opening day numbers of Dilwale and Bajirao Mastaani and does Bajirao Mastaani have a chance?

Ans. Dilwale will open better that is a no brainer and the the only question really is how much better and that will be decided on various factors. Firstly how do the multiplex programmers allot screens and timings and even more importantly, Dilwale is one of the 2 or 3 event films that come every year so its very likely that ticket prices will be raised for the film and what happens here with Bajirao Mastaani will decide the gap. Can Bajirao Mastaani do the same, will multiplexes allow it, if it does will the public pay the premium for it, if they do not does it give the sign of a weak film. This will only be known nearer the time of release.
M. Mustafa

Q. You said that Queen was not a fluke but over rated at the box office and was not a huge hit so does this also apply to English Vinglish as the director is now doing a Shahrukh Khan film so the expectations will be huge?

Ans. No doubt, its the same Queen and Shaandaar scenario, English Vinglish was liked by a very small minority but is made to look like an outstanding film, the expectations for the next become huge especially now as Shahrukh Khan is involved though its likely to be extended guest role. If its shown to public as a Shahrukh Khan starrer it will help the numbers but eventually if story telling is as English Vinglish its again minority appeal and numbers simply can’t be big.
K. Saamna

Q. What is the final business of Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon in India and Worldwide and is it a hit?
Ans. 42 crore nett and 70 crore gross Worldwide. Was a Hit.
Rashid Ali

Q. Why are the footfalls of Drishyam be higher than Dil Dhadakne Do when it did 11-12 crore less business?
Ans. Footfalls don’t go in the same way as collections, it despends on what is the pricing of tickets rates where the collections are coming from and this all varies across the country.
A. Sembhi

What is your view on filmmakers returning their awards?
I think the government should address this squarely – the authorities have to accept there is a problem and solve it through dialogue. Matters can’t be shoved under the carpet now.
Those returning awards too should write to the government first. They shouldn’t just return awards randomly. In a democracy, dissent can be expressed through newspapers, news channels or by writing to the government.
At the same time, if some people want to express their dissent by returning their awards, they’re free to do so. These are intelligent, well-educated people. They don’t have a petty or cheap agenda. They’re unhappy and expressing their angst – the people in power now have to find solutions.
Critics suggest returning a National Award is wrong as the nation bestows this – what’s your perspective?
It is not easy to return an award any awardee receives after years. They’re throwing away their own merit to express their frustration.
They’re not trying to insult anyone – they’re expressing their view non-violently.
Some suggest this is a manufactured protest – with a clear political purpose.
What purpose could so many different people from so many different fields have?
Their purpose is clear – they’re unhappy with things and they’ve chosen this way of expressing their angst.
Government will have to address this matter.
What is to blame for heightened tensions?
Well, these incidents have nothing to do with PM Narendra Modi – he is not a communal person at all. He totally disapproves of whatever is happening from either side, Hindus or Muslims.
But in 2014’s elections, many people won only because of the Modi wave. A few people have no formal education, no knowledge of parliamentary work and very narrow viewpoints. They don’t know what democracy means. They started acts of barbarism.
Sensible Muslims understand there are such people in all communities – but we were disturbed by the silence of other sensible people in Parliament who did nothing in the face of such uncivilised behaviour.
Modi has a bigger world view – he too was disturbed by these things. His ‘Sabka saath, sabka vikas’ is commendable. He has several schemes for uplifting Muslims including improving madrassa education. A movement i’ve named ‘Taalim ki taaqat’ has begun.
These things take time to materialise – but they’re working.
Arun Shourie has been very critical of Modi.
Narendra Modi is a personal friend – and Modi is not communal. I wonder if Arun Shourie would have said the same things if he was holding an important ministry in the current government.
For the rest follow the link-

Popular film actor and National Award winner Raveena Tandon on Wednesday joined the debate on #AwardWapsi. She spoke exclusively to Rahul Kanwal on his show Newsroom. Watch: What Shah Rukh Khan said
Here are top ten quotes from her interview:

“I don’t agree with those returning awards. I don’t think that returning the award is going to solve the purpose. Protest, in the way they have decided to do, is their their free, democratic right. We are a tolerant nation. Everyone has the right to do what they are doing and the right to say what they are saying these days.”
“Award wapsi is politically motivated.”
“My film Shool got the award for the best film. Daman got the award for me for playing the role against domestic violence. But everybody worked towards that award. There was a certain jury that handed that award. The whole team, unit put in their hard toil, sweat to that film… As a person, I will not return the National Award because I will be demeaning the rest of the award winners, making that award worthless. There are other forms of protest.”
“I will not return the National Award because I will be demeaning the rest of the award winners, making that award worthless. There are other forms of protest.”
“I haven’t taken the decision Anupam Kher’s anti-Award Wapsi rally on November 7. But if need be, I might as well just do that.”
“You can’t call the whole nation intolerant for a few unfortunate incident. Tell me one year when unfortunate incidents like Dadri, Kalburgi and others, have not happened.”
“It’s completely wrong what was said on Shah Rukh Khan. He is not anti-national.”
“Extreme intolerance has existed at all times, and previous governments have also banned films.”
“It’s time for the government to step in and stop such statements [SRK is Pakistani, or, he is like Hafiz Saeed ] against intolerance.”
“Dibakar Banerjee is a joke. Intolerance in this count

That is Shiv Sena supremo he is enacting. Anyhow, this one is gem:
At one point, when one scribe asked whether he thinks there’s intolerance in the country, Salman threw the question back at her.
“You tell me, you are the from the press. You tell me. Do you think intolerance in increasing?” Salman asked the reporter.
The reporter said, “I don’t think so. The atmosphere is created like that.”
Salman replied, “When you know it’s all being created, then why are you recreating it? Why are we discussing it? You are doing it. They created there. You are creating it here.”
Better words were never said, Salman.

His mom converted to islam and calls herself salima, but I guess that is besides the point
“Salman Khan on the intolerance issue: My mother is Susheela Charak, father is Salim Khan”http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/salman-khan-on-the-intolerance-issue-my-mother-is-susheela-charak-father-is-salim-khan/
People make ignorant comments time to time; celebs are no exceptions. SRK on the other hand has been quite consistent and you have to give him that. Salman is also lose cannon and can make “statements” when he drunk for instance. Not just paki interviews that masters talks abt, he also made tweets when a certain person was given death sentence in recent times. celebs need to learn from bachchan and need to learn to shut up instead of making inflamatory statements that can cause law and order situation in the country. Salman is not married but srk and aamir are and to hindu spouses. Then to talk abt intolerance is to give gaalis to their own families. shame.

This isn’t about SRK’s debate. Did you see what I replied above? You commented on the Halloween pic of Bal Thackery and compared it to “Hindu and hindu gods” .. does that even make sense?

Anyways, looks like you are on different high… will leave it at here.

On aside point, looks like you ignored various interview by Salman Khan given to Pakistani TVs during the Taj attack and all. Well, I don’t want to turn you into Salman hater either.. so its better you don’t see them.

” he is doing Bal Thackerey.. not some Hindu god.”
Bal Thakerey was imitating a sadhu or a devout hindu by such getup. con man. Parr then all politicians have clay feet…so not much expected frm them. But then for a movie star to do the devout hindu getup and and give finger the said “intolerance”

Mahira took to Twitter on Thursday to issue an apology for hurting people’s sentiments. “The image from a Halloween event I attended has been made out to be something it never was. It was not done intentionally to hurt anybody’s sentiments, neither to make a political statement,” she posted.

“As many have said before me, artistes are creative people who can’t be dragged into the politics of nations. I have always made a concerted effort to maintain this standard for myself. Love and peace to all. “If I have hurt anyone’s sentiments with the image at the Halloween, I would like to apologise as that was not what I intended and was unintentional,” she added

There are five main releases left with Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Tamasha, Hate Story 3, Dilwale and Bajirao Mastaani and all five can work it can turn out to be an average year rather than a poor one but all five working is probably an unlikely scenario.

Hate Story 3 has Sharman Joshi and Katrina’s look alike. I think they meant Mastizaade which has Sunny Leone in a double role. There is still a vast market in middle India which does not have access to internet and cinema hall still the solitude they are looking to jerk off peacefully.

SRK has received extra security after the whole fuss over his remarks. Meanwhile Saeed Mirza, Kundan Shah and 24 others have returned awards. Arundati Roy has as well, wonder what took her so long (!). Meanwhile the govt has now started assembling folks who can support them or march for them in the same way. These are the ‘good’ artists/intellectuals!

I’m curious to know what if Modi “Bows down”, is India going to be metamorphosed in to a “Pre 16 MAY 2014’s state of absolute peace and tolerance”??? All this “award wapsi” is also manifestation of extreme intolerance of those who are indulging in these smear campaign to make it as if “HOLOCAUST” is upon Indians!! Yes there are problems, but not unprecedented or of scale which have not happened in the past, but i didn’t see any one protesting when Rajiv Gandhi was bestowed with Bharat Ratna right after his assassination as if he was a “Martyr” or for that matter Indira Gandhi shamelessly selecting herself for Bharat Ratna during her own tenure!! But she, despite introducing worst kind of autocratic tendencies and crushing her opponents and rewarding sycophants is reckoned to be an ideal leader by the same people who are taking this moral stance!! Or for that matter in my opinion, Babari Mosque demolition was the watershed moment in India as it brought about the unprecedented polarisation between Hindus and Muslims and also catapulted BJP from “also ran” to forming the government in 1998, if Congress “WANTED”, this could well have been prevented, but Congress wary of its waning popularity let this happen for it would help them to polarise Muslim and liberal Hindus vote bank. So for its own advantage it created this “Frankenstein monster” in the form of “Appeasement politics” which has now turned against it and gnawing at its “creator”.

If your servant becomes your household head and starts running things, would you like it? If a chaiwala becomes PM, would we the intellectuals like that? Nahi naa…so, we are intolerant. In a way they are protesting against their own intolerance for the change.

You are going into political discussion; its not about picking BJP or Congress here. FTTI issue is not political. Honestly its not a big issue that some joker is the chairman of FTTI as it really won’t impact anything to anyone but if students have been protesting for months and many of the film industry folks feel insult to see a B-grade film hero(Jungle Love, Vasna, etc) as their chairman, Modi should replace him and put in some other position and move on. Its not a big post or issue to drag it for 6 months!

Great comment Myselfaamir and you definitely have a good point here and I too do not support this kind of token intolerance crap.
But PM Modi with a full mandate could do much better than what he has done until now. Further through out this episode what has disturbed me most is the Arun Shourie interview to Karan Thapar.
I do not know if it was stage managed or if he simply acted like a disgruntled soul in not getting a ministry….. but going by his past integrity, I wish to give Shourie the benefit of doubt and for a moment i too was scared to what he was prophesying.

Though Shourie when cornered was falling back on the time tested Nehruvian ‘Secular’ model & Nation being too strong to survive this such upheaval ( pointed by Satyam in his earlier comment ), but his last couple of lines before ending the interview were alarming wrt to Muslim population in India which is at a good 170 million now and what if this big chunk suddenly becomes a ISIS sympathizer with daily media news thrown at him of lynching, mobbing and shaming. Even U.S accepts in their reports Indian Muslim is the only chunk in the world which has by and large remained unaffected by religious fanaticism / terrorism and credit goes to our nation /our majority population for that.

But beside this what perplexes many is the timing of all this. When the nation has already bestowed full trust and given Modi a majority for the next 5 years then what stops you from going full ahead with development agenda and keep this petty politics for the fag end of the tenure for reelection. All I see is another VP Singh in the making who feels this jump to power was a fluke so let me use this opportunity to get my vote bank strengthened and play Mandal politics, break the nation into castiest segments and secure vote banks to keep me in powers for a very long time.

I fully agree with Shourie that the chair of the PM is much above all this pettiness and Shourie is right this was done simply for Bihar election ( which incidentally he is going to lose now by heavy margin as per exit polls ). As head of the nation one has to do better than play with the sentiments of your citizen and pit them against each other. He may be involved directly but his henchmen ( Amit Shah ) have done the dirty work for him. Shourie was explicit in castigating Modi here saying one cannot have it both ways by saying one is a strong leader and at the other end blame fringe elements within his party for these things.

Basic fact is India and Indians need money to come out of the extreme poverty and that can be done solely by focusing on development. I think this is what Modi started with when he said lets put a 10 year Moratorium to divisive / communal politics and focus and development of India. But alas greed is the inventor of injustice !

Thanks MSDhoni for your appreciation. But don’t you think that “English media (read influential)” is hellbent upon projecting the current state of country as chaotic and full of anarchy where we are on the brink of internal “war”!! For the last 1 month, it’s been sickening to keep listening to their lies as if India is going to fall apart if not for these “selective creative, patriotic and secular” people who have taken a very brave and bold stand against such tyrannical regime!! For God sake, India is secular because its citizens are secular and because its majority practises secularism, not because of these “400+ conscience keeper and beholder”!! So yes the ugly and barbaric incidents which have taken place ought to be denounced and those responsible for it should be brought to book, but let’s not feign as if “these things” never ever occurred in the past or past governments have been the epitome of secularism! Selective secularism is more harmful to the country than open bigotry as it conceals the true and manipulative nature of its proponents. And whatever our likes or ideologies be, let’s not fool ourselves in believing that “these politicians” comprising all parties are going to better India as it’s sheer naivety on our part as one could easily see the “real state of affairs” in different states of India despite having gone through many regime changes in the form of different parties governing these states at different point of time, yet it’s just the continuum of their one set agenda to keep dividing and enslaving us as one party would keep blaming others for not being able to deliver due to the impediments those “others” had created and this blame game would continue ensuing in us keep getting conned by these “astute and shrewd minds” and milking our naivety to their own advantage. Yet we’ll keep fighting and killing one another, how ironical yet true!

why are you so obsessed with FTII? After RaGa met with the students there was definitely not going to be a compromise. All the folks unhappy about Gajendra Singh had no issues with Pratibha Patil becoming the President of India.